Algeria-UK Relations

 Wintering in Algiers*
 British firms in Algeria*
 Algerian Coffee Stores




























































































 

Official relations of friendship and cooperation between Algeria and Great Britain have lasted over 400 years, with John Tipton being the first English Consul posted to Algiers in 1580. He had been appointed at the request of London tradesmen who were interested in the North African market which was covered by Mr. Tipton from his base in Algiers. This was on behalf of the Barbary Coast Company which had been established under the reign of Elizabeth I.

During the latter’s reign, political relations between Algeria and England were based on their mutual hostility towards catholic Spain. This “strategic alliance” had protected English ships from attacks from the Barbary fleet. Trade flourished between the two countries as a consequence.

When James I succeeded Elizabeth I to the English throne in 1603, and made overtures to Spain, England benefited from this privileged position but its ships began to be attacked by the Barbary privateers.

Thanks to Constantinople, a peace treaty was signed in Algiers in 1623. The truce, however, did not last very long. Skirmishes between the two fleets started up again and hundreds of captives were taken to London and Algiers. This state of things lasted until the beginning of 1682, when in April of that year, a peace and trade treaty was signed by both countries. Relations between Algeria and England were without incident during the 17th century.

When James I refused to renew the commissions of the English privateers, many of the latter rejoined the Regency of Algiers where their experience was appreciated. The most famous of them all are Ramadan Raïs (Henry Chandler) and John Ward.

An eighteenth-century English historian noted that the conditions in which captives were held in Algiers were no worse than in Christian ports. Some were even allowed to become inn-keepers because trading in wines or other alcoholic drinks was forbidden to Muslims. Captives who were doctors and surgeons continued to ply their trade during the Algiers Regency. The amount of religious tolerance was also emphasized by various witnesses.

The beginning of the war between Great Britain and revolutionary France in 1793 strengthened the strategic alliance with the English. The successful naval expedition of 1815 against Algiers, led by the fledgling American Republic, forced Algiers to accord special treatment to the latter by abolishing the yearly tax they had to pay, freeing unconditionally American captives held in Algiers and the Dey paying them compensation. This incited the British to ask for similar terms. In August, 1816, Lord Exmouth attacked Algiers and put an end to the threat posed to the British Merchant Navy by Algiers’s privateers.

Numerous British diplomats, writers, historians, businessmen and journalists have resided in Algeria since the 17th century.

Thomas Shaw lived in Algiers from 1720 to 1732. He travelled all over the country, providing much information in his “Voyages and Observations”, its physical geography, climate, its crops, fauna, its government, its army, its economy. the traditions of its inhabitants, its religion and judicial system, its towns and ports, its Roman ruins, etc. James Bruce, the explorer who later found the source of the Nile, explored Algeria’s Roman ruins in 1765 and 1766.

Lady Hester Stanhope, Isabelle Burton and Lady Anne Blunt were amongst the first British travellers to explore the Algerian desert. The painter William Wylde (1806-1889) stayed for one year, 1833, in Algeria. His books contain exceptional descriptions of Algerian towns immediately following the French invasion.
 

British Firms in Algeria
One of the first important projects carried out in colonial Algeria was the construction of the Algiers sea promenade by an English company reputed for its technological prowess in comparison with its competitors.

A Scottish manufacturer discovered Algerian esparto grass in 1865 and was the first to use it to manufacture paper. It was also in western Algeria, in Beni Saf, that another English company was set up to mine and transport great quantities of iron ore. British importers of Algerian iron ore imported at one time more than a million tons a year. This trade continues today, although with smaller quantities being imported.

The first shipment of Algerian LNG (liquefied natural gas) arrived at Canvey Island gas terminal, on the Thames estuary, in October 1964. The contract provided for the delivery of 700,000 tons of LNG a year, in other words, 10% of the gas consumed by British customers.

At the beginning of the seventies, when Algeria was embarking on a process of industrial expansion, British companies provided equipment, machinery and technological know-how. Credit lines were awarded to Algeria and contracts were given to many British companies. Between 1963 and 1973, the volume of commercial exchanges between the two countries increased tenfold. This development effort was accompanied by the policy of training Algerian students abroad.

By the 1980s, Great Britain came in second place, after France, as a destination for students in training. At the beginning of the nineties, Glasgow, Sheffield, Salford, Leeds and Nottingham universities had work programmes with their Algerian counterparts in Blida, Tizi Ouzou, Constantine, Annaba and Oran. In December, 1995, a protocol agreement was signed by Sonatrach and BP, the latter having several development projects in Algeria.


* Bibliography:  The British in Algiers by Osman Bencharif, sponsored by the BP Foundation and published by Edition RSM Communication (2001).